The government, to the first shock plan, energy crisisBy the end of summer 2021, Mandatory auctions for major energy companies to offer fixed-price electricity purchase contracts for more than one year.
The manager’s idea is that of the four big electricity companies (iberdrola, Endesa, improvisation and PDE) would have to join in order to transfer It generates some of its electricity from nuclear, hydroelectric and renewable energy to sell to independent marketers. -small electricity companies that do not integrate into large energy groups- anyway large industrial consumers.
Royal Decree 17/2021, which announced the first package of measures to control the electricity price, contained a clear mandate for the Government to organize the first of these auctions. Before 31 December 2021. This deadline has been missed and continues to be missed as these auctions are never held. Enforcement continues without carrying out the necessary legislative development to put them into operation.
And the companies involved, both forced to sell electricity and benefiting from this forced sale, began to be seen as certain that the legislature would be closed without any call for an auction. To the delight of the former and the anger of the latter.
This Small energy companies and large industry, which can buy this electricity at a fixed and affordable price, continue to apply for this tender. and the Ministry of Ecological Transition, commanded by Vice President Teresa Ribera, are showing their dismay at the incompatibility. Independent electricity distributors and major industrial groups are pressing for the Government to finally fulfill its commitment.
Both of them Association of Independent Energy Marketers (ACIE) It brings together about twenty companies that are not integrated into large groups such as Totalenergies, BP, Cepsa, Fenie or Factorenergia– aspect Large Energy Consumption Companies Association (AEGE) – represents as many as thirty major industrial groups such as According to sources from both organizations – ArcelorMittal, Acerinox, Sidenor, Ferroatlántica or Tubos Reunidos – they have repeatedly submitted to the Government their request to hold auctions and complain that they have not received a response. SPANISH NEWSPAPERFrom the Iberian Press group.
“The auction arrangement continues to disturb the righteous. We only get administrative silence in response. And we assume that in this case negative administrative silence”, they point out from AEGE. “The industry continues to aspire to be called for the auction.” It is a desire shared by ACIE’s independent traders to be able to provide their customers with access to electricity produced by large groups through auctions at a reasonable price, thereby reducing their exposure to the volatility of the wholesale electricity market.
Denial of big power companies
The big electricity companies, which will have to sell some of their electricity, have spent the last year and a half openly rejecting the measure and warning that it cannot be implemented. sold all or almost all of its electricity generation and that going to the auction will force them to take the promised electricity from some customers and sell it to others.
The government is reluctant to formally reject the mandatory auction plan, but freezes the plan, assuming it threatens to cause major utilities to terminate already-closed sales contracts. from Ministry of Ecological Transitiontasked with arranging a possible tender, the plan’s outright rejection hasn’t been confirmed, but it’s acknowledged that it’s difficult to implement and prefers to be prudent.
Electricity supply contracts often contain clauses that allow companies to break conditions and regulatory changes that have a serious impact on profitability. Iberdrola goes further and includes special clauses that allow the contract to be terminated without any compensation to the customer if the Government finally encourages auctions and the company is forced to participate.
The National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) has already submitted the report setting the mandatory reserve price (the minimum price at which companies can sell electricity without loss) to hold the tender, but No progress was made on other preparatory processes for the launch of proposals.
Participating in these tenders will not be an option for large electricity companies, it will be a necessity to participate in those tenders. The first of these tenders, originally planned for 2021, predetermined the amount of energy they had to auction: 15,830 gigawatt hours (GWh), equivalent to 25% of the annual electricity production of the year with the lowest generation of the year. affected facilities. . Even the distribution of the energy that each of the electricity companies should participate in according to their own generation quotas was determined: iberdrolamore than 7,300 GWh; Endesa6,700 GWh; improvisation1,400 GWh; and EDP, 360 GWh.